I looked at a Delta 12 inch jointer planer machine tonight from craigslist. I don’t know anything about the machine, except that I can’t find any inforation about it. Delta no longer makes it. The tag on it says it was built in 1994 and the model number is 37-300. It reminds me of how the MiniMax works with the infeed & outfeed tables swinging up and away to expose the planer.Anyway, does anyone know were I can get more info on this machine? What’s the value on one of these that runs and in decent shape? Are parts even available?

Hey Loren, a lot of people and even manufacturers are now calling jointers jointers/planers. Confusing but I guess technically it does plane one side of a board. A planer is a planer and a jointer is a jointer and a jointer is not a jointer/planer in my book as it always was. I’m seeing that jointer/planer term used more and more lately for jointers. Probably some marketing trick to make you think you’re getting more…

Loren, It is definitely not the 37-300 as shown in your link. It is a beast of a machine, especially to put in a small home shop.Do a search for Mini Max and that’s what it looks like. I’ll give Delta a call later this morning.Running, it may be worth a grand, but if I can’t get parts for it, it’s worth nothing if it breaks down

I called Delta and found out the model number for this machine is 37-790. There is no inforation about it on their site and they are not making or selling anyt repair parts for this machine. It’s a pretty sweet machine, but if repair parts are not available, I have to pass on this deal.

I got a look at a schematic for a Rockwell 37-790. It’scertainly similar to a Robland or Minimax combo.

It is likely a re-badged version of a machine made byone of the European manufacturers. Without seeingan actual photo of the machine it would be hard to speculate which machine it may take parts for.

One of the problems with older combo machines isalways parts because careless owners lose attachments.That said, I had a Robland for awhile and it was sorobust I wouldn’t expect anything to ever break, thoughthe electrics were a bit complex because it could switch motor direction and had some extra safety switches and things like that.

Here is a pic.The infeed and outfeed tables are in the upper right corner. The cover (which has been loosened to access the wiring) is on the left, below the fence. The hand wheel is the used to adjust the planer bed. Above the planer bed, there is a protective cover that goes over the cutter head and also acts as a dust shoot.

The guy did power it up and we used both, the jointer and the planer to clean up a piece of rough maple. Considering that the machine had been sitting for a long time and had some surface rust on the planer bed, it did a pretty good job, with no snipe!

These types of machine do have a proven design and machinesof this type are made or have made by many different manufacturersin Europe. Some accept a mortising table on the side.

The problems that come up relate to the indexing of both topand bottom tables to relate to the cutterhead and thereturning of both jointer tables to the same exact alignmentwhen they are put back into position after a planing session.

I’d say that the fence on the unit you are looking at is a bitlight. The castings appear robust and the cabinet is robusttoo. Without the mortiser such a machine with no partsavailability might sell for $500-$750. $1000 is steep in my opinion. An INCA combo sold on ebay last week for $750and while they are smaller machines than the one you arelooking at, the quality of engineering and manufacture is very high on the INCA and precision is more built-in.

No. Parts are not generally a problem as the machines are very wellmade. I wouldn’t recommend buying any INCA machine that doesn’t work however. Broken-down INCA machines should be considered donor machines. Belts, bearings, blades and other minor parts are available from Eagle Tools in Altadena, CA.

The Rikon jointer-planer is an inferior copy of the INCA. The design is very similar but the quality of manufacturing is allegedly not as good. The comparable French-made INCAmachines sold for about twice what the Rikon sells for today.Nobody seems to have a straight answer as to whether INCAis in business anymore.

I have the machine you are or were asking about. I bought it new in 1994 or 1995. I use it every day in my business, www.bvwinc.com . I have had no problems , i did purchase a Byrd helical cutter head which they custom made. I sent them the 3 blade head and received the new head as well as the old one.It was made by Kity with Delta badging on it. I paid 2195.00 new and just under 1000.00 for the indexable carbide head. I have all the manuals, plus a color brochure that delta published. Let me know if it is still for sale , I know some one who has been trying to buy mine since he first used it.